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Modder Releases Massive Mario Fan Game

Credit: Kaze Emanuar

You can teach an old dog new tricks, it just requires a lot of graphical and coding skill.

The modding communities for Mario games have thrived since the Super Nintendo days. From the days when some mad Japanese guy opened a hex editor to make a rage-inducing ROM hack of Super Mario World to now, modders have consistently shown themselves to be as clever, creative, and hardworking as professional game devs. One modder in particular, who goes by Kaze Emanuar, is well-known in the modding community for his tinkering with Super Mario 64. Yesterday, that tinkering came to a head as he released Super Mario 64 Land, a quite-frankly massive content project for the classic 3D platformer.

Super Mario 64 Land features 32 entirely new levels based around the themes and mechanics of Mario games old and new. Aesthetics are borrowed from games including, but not limited to, Super Mario World, Super Mario 3D Land, and Super Mario 3D World, though there are also plenty of entirely original levels. Ten power-ups, some original, some imported from other Mario games like the Cat Suit, have also been added to the game’s code, fully functioning and with their own unique appearances. The mod also features 8 original boss fights and 75 new music tracks. It’s basically a full-on expansion pack for Super Mario 64.

Now, the mod is not a stand-alone thing; you’d need to run it through a patched Super Mario 64 ROM with an emulator. Legally speaking, I can’t encourage emulation, but if you were to hypothetically obtain a ROM (ideally from a dump from a cartridge you personally own), you could hypothetically patch it with the patcher program Kaze Emanuar linked in his announcement video. After that, you could hypothetically play it with an N64 emulator. Hypothetically.

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